Customer Experience as an Underestimated Engine in Online Business.

The official version about online business being the most promising of all businesses is still true. However, not all of the online entrepreneurs put in perspective some vital business facets, leaving them untouched and risking to run their venture with a lob-sided vision.

Likelihood is that online money-generating enterprises can find what works for them and stick to it – either it’s an email marketing or paid advertising campaign in Social Media – and there will never be a red flag to cut the commitment off until or if it totally warns itself out. Likewise, in the early years of our existence, our company has pulled its lucky card, which had allowed us to make a beautiful living over roughly a year, whilst we were maximizing our profit from the discovered channel. If you must know, we had found an SEO-fellow from India, who was, through no fault of his own, blind in terms of long-term SEO, but quite impressive in a short run.

Well yes, it was working out fine for us, and we did not see anything bad coming to jeopardize the value we were acquiring.

Unfortunately, the magic did not last long. Our competitive edge started crumbling rapidly insofar as it had remained the same for 6 months, which is an eternity in a fast-changing e-commerce environment. We were so captured by the necessity of looking for new marketing channels that we had fully forgotten about an importance to work with our existing customers, taking them for granted.

First off, I must say that in our business an average lifecycle of 1 client constitutes about 1-2 years. This can be considered quite a shortfall but it’s true.

Secondly, our website is equipped with all possible buzzers, reminders, and also e-mail notifications that to some extent eradicated the necessity of doing more in this respect for the time-being. Fundamentally, no special forces were brought to go an extra mile for our clients, as the support team members had had the standard series of moves to perform when processing the client, at the time when doing something extraordinary for him/her would be completely up to the supporter’s discretion.

Nevertheless, even though our customers at some point graduate and no longer need our services, which partly exonerated us for the second-class performance, luckily, we had a wake-up call opening our eyes about how pathetic we were by not taking care of the people, who were taking care of our business. We were disabused from all possible notions that the customer would have a great aftertaste only if he had received a quality product. In fact, I want to assure you: having delivered an impeccable product, you would never stay in a heart of your customer unless you personally reach out and ask “How are you”. I can state it with my eyes closed: it is absolutely impossible to leave a positive mark about your brand and be associated with something good as the time passes by if not by doing something human for the people who chose your service.

This list of MUST-DO behaviors to humanize people’s experience with your service applies to any online company, with nearly all possible customers’ interaction types. Especially, this would

be a great fit for the life-changing products, significant for people in a big way.

1. Be consistent.

Never create an image and impression that you cannot sustain. If you manage to acquire clients respect on the major parts of your service, do not fell short on the small ones like reverting back a clarification email or thanking for the choice.

2. Rise up higher after you had failed.

Problems are opportunities. Digging even deeper: failures are opportunities. Trust me, taking extraordinary efforts with an aim of making up for shortcomings you have committed – not once flipped our perception of failure in front of our customers. People are prone to forgive, and they feel an emotional connection if you are being sincere in your apology, backing it up by something that they would not expect after you have let them down.

3. Don’t afraid to look like a fool.

Forget about arrogance. You need to be a real human being who admits the mistakes. When taking to a higher level, the organization that confesses to be wrong and even silly always gets an edge before those who claim they are always right.

4. Be honest.

Do not lie to your people. If you lie, even for good sake, this means you put your own interest above your clients’ ones. Sooner or later – you will be exposed, and this can hit you harshly at the most unexpected time.

I do admit that my vision of things can be limited, though I am anextreme believer that following these steps can very much contribute into the better customer experience, leading to more sales and overall business success.